Run The Blades 50k - 23 July 2016

Plan A, finish under 5 hours
Plan B, finish under 6 hours
Plan C, finish

Set within Whitelee Wind Farm, Run The Blades is a 50k (31 mile) event. Some would call it undulating, I would say it has some killer hills in there!

Set off at 6:30am, expecting to get there for registration by 8am, and I duly arrived spot on time. At the car park met up with Steven, Fiona and Simon. Steven was doing the 50k as well, Fiona and Simon doing the half marathon. There is also a 10k event for those of you interested in next year?

There was supposed to be a shuttle bus to take us from car park to the visitor centre for registration, I never saw it yet! So we had about a half mile walk to the visitor centre, all the time feeding the midges who were out for some breakfast. Once registered I was getting a wee bit stressed that we would miss the race briefing and start, we were due to start at 9am, it was now 8:50 and we had a 10 minute walk to the start. All of the races were starting from the same point, with 10 minute breaks in between. When we got to the start I was relieved to hear that the start had been delayed by 15 minutes. Chill out John!

Fiona's pal Susan arrived and there was time for a pre race photo before the off.

Simon, Steven, Fiona, Susan and Me

A very quick race briefing, an even quicker 3,2,1 and we were away.
My aim was to run 6.2 miles an hour (roughly 9 minute 35 second miles) and maintain this throughout. That worked...for the first hour! The second hour got off to a crap start...literally. Stomach cramps had me down to a shuffle, anyway moving on. The wind turbines felt and sounded like they were right above your head, and going around at some speed.

The elite runners will run all the way, most ultramarathon runners will walk the ups and run the flats and the downs, and that was my strategy. Plan A was gone my mile 9 and the focus was then on Plan B, under 6 hours. Although the event was set in a windfarm, it was bloody warm.

Wind turbines

Another strategy I use in ultras is to pick someone out ahead of me (around a half mile) and aim to cut down the distance between me and them over the course of the race. If the person in front stops to walk up a hill, I make sure I run a wee bit further than they did before I walk, and I also make sure I start running again before they do on the flat/downhill.  I also found myself talking to the snow poles either side of the tracks, I would use these as a start/stop run point, saying 'alright guys' but quickly turning to 'f**k you guys'
At least I knew I was doing it this time!

Just after mile 16 was a real downer for me, my whole body ached, I was hot, uncomfortable and not really enjoying myself. Then, on a bit of an incline, there was a wee shower of rain, which cooled me down a wee bit. I stopped (to check the colour of my pee) and took a wee breather. Pee check was spot on (straw colour) and this put me in a good place. I was using Tailwind nutrition mix for the first time in an event and it worked perfectly. Basically, the claim is that it's 'all you need' for running all day, providing carbs, salts and electrolytes. I'm not confident enough to go without whole food for 5-6 hours, so I had banana, jaffa cakes and pork pies (and as always, flat fat coke) at checkpoints. I ate the jaffa cakes and pork pies, but only because I'm greedy! The tailwind did it's job.

Between checkpoints 2 and 3 seemed to take forever, the distance was around 8 miles, but felt like 12, from checkpoint 3 there are 6 miles to go to the finish, a lovely downhill to start and then back to up/down, up/down...aaarrrgghhhhhh!

Somewhere along this six mile stretch I realised if I ran 10 minute miles I'd get in under 6 hours...wisnae happening (finished in 6 hours 6 minutes), but you learn a lot from these times. At mile 16 I could've chucked it, but I've somehow developed a stronger mental toughness, or maybe stubbornness and almost thrive on these situations. 'This is what you came for' (copyright Scott Jurek) was the wee mantra that got me through a bad spell.

Up and over one last hill (ye think) and your almost there, then there's another wee cheeky hill and you see a sign that reads '400 metres to go'...I sure it felt longer! Turned a corner, saw the banners and the finish, man what a feeling. Steven very kindly videoed my finish, and I love watching it!

Also at the finish, Katie Hall! Was great to see Katie and have a quick catch up. Delighted to hear she's recovered well from the Great Glen Ultra and is gearing up for her next challenge.

And so am I...

Thanks to Garry and Lee the event organisers and to all of the marshals and checkpoint volunteers, everyone had a smile and encouragement in abundance. It does make a difference, thank you all.

A great ultra event I'd recommend to anyone thinking about having a go at a distance further than 26.2 miles

Lessons learned:

• Don't fixate about shuttle buses
• Tailwind nutrition works for me
• Injinji socks work for me
• If your giving someone faster a run home, give them the car keys
• Running two ultras three weeks apart, is maybe too much (further tests required)

#inabootit

Great Glen Ultra - 2 July 2016 (Oh Ya Bam!)

I love a first, but I wasn't sure about this one...

Plan A, finish in 17 hours
Plan B, finish in under 20 hours
Plan C, finish

The Great Glen Ultra event (71 miles from Fort William to Inverness) starts at 1am, never experienced that before, of the events I've entered so far most start around 9am, so this was a wee bit different.

Susan and I set off on Friday afternoon, we were staying in Spean Bridge, 10 miles from the race start. 
The plan was that Susan would drop me off around 11:30pm for race registration at the Moorings Hotel, just next to the start at Neptunes Staircase, Fort William. We drove up through Glencoe and just as we were approaching the Kingshouse, Susan announced "This is us 71 miles from our front door"...talk about an eye opener!

We stayed at the Distant Hills guesthouse, I made my way to bed around 7pm and planned to have 3 to 4 hours sleep. Around 8:50pm I became aware of a banging noise from the corridor outside our door. Turns out the lock of the door in the room next to us had developed a fault and the owner and a joiner spent the next 3 hours trying to fix it! 
So that was me up. The bonus was I watched the second half of the Wales v Belgium match!

We left the guesthouse (past a very apologetic owner, he got dingied) as planned around 11:15 and drove to Fort William, on our way there we were behind a coach, it turns out this was the 'party bus' of runners who had traveled down from the course finish at Inverness to get registered.

Into the Moorings Hotel, handed over medical form (no form, no registration), handed in my drop bags for the 6 checkpoints, and then it's all about getting your head right, an hour and fifteen minutes until race time!

Susan left around midnight to go back to the guesthouse (where the banging noises had thankfully stopped) and I set about applying the Avon Skin So Soft (wasn't bothered by midges so must have worked!), and sipping away at some water.

12:40 we were asked to make our way across to Neptune's Staircase, which is a five minute walk, we listened to the race briefing and at 1am we were off!

1am start

Neptunes Staircase to Clunes, 10.5 miles
I've done a few runs with a headtorch, but never anywhere as dark as this! I started worrying that everyones headtorch was stronger than mine and my batteries would run out, so tucked in behind a group and turned mine off! Turns out this group were going at a pace much faster than I intended so I let them pull away and turned my torch back on. I then became aware of two runners behind me who had turned their torches off and were following me!

The time got to around 2:45am, had run about 8 miles, and we crossed over the canal, there were two runners ahead of me and they took a sharp right and stayed on the canal towpath and then up into a forest, I followed and quickly met them coming back towards me, they had come across a padlocked gate, we had taken a wrong turning. 
Don't panic...we had a quick chat, figured it out and backtracked a bit to read the signage which would be quite visible in daylight but not so much at 2:45am. 
Now, the worry set in, miss the first checkpoint cut-off and your race is over before it's begun. I'm a big fearty at the best of times, but put me in a forest with a headtorch in the middle of the night and I become a big petrified fearty! Then someone mentioned this is the 'fairy forest', I so wanted out of there. 
The three of us stuck together and eventually (15 minutes later) we saw a few headtorches in the distance which meant we were back on track. Made the checkpoint at around 3:10am, had a quick top up of water and picked up some food from my drop bag and away again.

Clunes to Laggan, 20 miles
The next 10 miles was undulating, and I felt I was running quite well, the headtorch went off as the daylight was breaking through and I was confident of being able to see where I was going. It started to rain, got my waterproof on, put my head down and got on with it. A few times I thought of people lying in their bed and I'm out here running. There's only 98 people on the planet doing this right here right now, and we're all mental! One of the runners I'd taken a wrong turning with in the forest and I had stuck together for about 5 miles, but he was running just a wee bit too fast for my pace so I stopped for a pee and let him go on (never saw him again) We'll talk about pee a bit more later!

Laggan to Fort Augustus, 31 miles
I had aimed to be at 35 miles before I phoned Susan around 8:30am, that wasn't going to happen, I was a bit short, came into Fort Augutus around 7:45am with 31 miles under my belt. There were a couple of climbs between Laggan and Fort Augustus, but it ended with a 3 to 4 mile run along the canal again. I enjoyed this as I could settle into a decent rhythm, although the legs were starting to tire slightly. I spoke with Susan, who told me what a lovely breakfast she was having! We arranged a time to meet at the next checkpoint...Invermoriston

31 miles in

Fort Augustus to Invermoriston, 40 miles
This is where the real ascent started, although my legs were tired I felt good and marched on up the climbs, the views were amazing and the craic was great with other runners on the course. One thing that gets me about the ultra running community is the spirit of togetherness shown between everyone. The massive climb (1,000 feet) was followed by a very steep descent, and I could feel my toes banging off the inside of my shoes. I mentioned about pee earlier, and a good gauge of if you are properly hydrated is the colour of your pee (straw coloured is perfect), mine was causing me a wee bit of concern. Came into Invermoriston around 9:45am, had my favourite drop bag here, beans and mini pork sausages, was awesome. No sign of Susan and when I mentioned this to the marshall she said "yer no waiting for her, on yer way!"
I entered this checkpoint to ELO "Roll Over Beethoven" and left to The Alarms "68 Guns", very uplifting.

Invermoriston to Drumnadrochit, 54.5 miles
The marshall informed me there was a water stop about 8 miles in, but I'd made sure I had around 1 litre of water with me before I left the checkpoint. I can normally go around an hour and a half on one 600ml bottle (and my pee colour is fine!) 
You know when you see those films of the Italian countryside with the winding roads, that's what the next climb was like, up, up and ever up! My GPS battery in watch number one gave up and I switched to my second back up watch. The sun came out, the midges came out, and I was seriously flagging. I was sipping away at the water I had, but it was going down as quick as the hills were going up. 

Above Loch Ness

After what seemed like an eternity the hill started to descend, I stopped for another pee (oops, kinda bright yellow now) and was in serious need of some proper hydration. Had a quick chat with Susan who had missed me by 5 minutes at Invermoriston, and she also informed me if it got really bad, I could drink my own pee, gotta love a resourceful support crew!

About half a mile after I'd spoken with Susan, I came to the end of that section of forest, through a gate, turned a corner and saw the water station, apart from the finish it was my most welcome sight of the day. Angela was in charge here, and I'll be forever grateful to both her and Brin the dog. A lady (Gill?) asked me if I wanted to share a packet of salt and vinegar hula hoops? I agreed and then had a seat to take in some liquids. As I was sitting there another runner emerged from the forest announcing that unless there were 'Tropical Soleros' there was nothing he required and kept moving on!

Leaving the water station there was about a 2 mile run on tarmac before coming into another forest and descending into Drumnadrochit. As I entered the forest I was chased down the track by a greyhound with it's owner running after it screaming! Why does this stuff happen to me? You can see Drumnadrochit for miles before you get there, they really should think about building a bridge over the river which would cut about two miles off your distance.

Drumnadrochit is where I first met Susan all day, what a welcome sight that was. And then...she informed me she had a pie supper for me! Drop bag ditched, gimmee the pie!

Ya dancer!

Turns out Susan was inspired to get the pie supper from fellow runner Sean who had opted for chips and a single deep fried mars bar!

Drumnadrochit to Loch Laide, 62 miles
A long 1.5 miles out of Drumnadrochit on road before the climb started again. As I went up I swear there were some bits I was thinking, "this isnae right, humans urnae built for this!" My pee is now the colour of Tango.

It's about this time I start 'seeing' stuff. I'm tired, my brain is playing tricks on me. 
I'm a big fearty in the middle of a forest and I'm seeing aw kinds o' shit!
At one point I had even agreed in my head it would be OK to die here...woah, wake up call, let's get this done. It's a very slow jog, every stone underfoot feeling like being stabbed at every step. It was relentless, unforgiving...but that's what I came for. 
Mixing it up with nature is an awesome thing, but always remember that nature is in charge!
Arrived at Loch Laide, sort of fell into a seat to look into my drop bag and feel repulsed by everything in it. Katie Hall is there before me, we'd met earlier in the day and Katie was in some very sore pain. Bill (one of the BAM's) informs us it's all downhill to Inverness from here, just down through the spooky forest and then onto...wait a minute, did he say spooky forest?

Loch Laide to Inverness 71 miles
Katie and I set off, 9 miles to go, my second watch had packed in by this time, I was past caring. Half a mile behind us were Graham and Gill, they caught up, we moved, they caught up, we moved on...and repeat. I should probably apologise to Katie for my inane drivel, given that she was suffering enough without listening to a madman saying things like... "Oh look, there's a cheetah, with a rat in it's stomach!" 
I'm being serious here.
After what seemed like forever, (Bill was right, it was mostly downhill) we arrived in Inverness, along the canal towpath, across the swingy bridge thing and into the stadium. I spot Susan right away, the tears started a while ago, but they are in full flow now. I'm so close, there are 70 miles behind me and 200 metres to go. I took off my backpack, let it go and ran for the finish, it wasn't a sprint, but it felt bloody good!

71 miles...done!

The number 1 support crew

My new pal Katie

The next morning at the prize giving I blubbered all the way through, some very emotional scenes, amazing achievements by extraordinary people. Many thanks to team BAM (ye are bams by the way) every marshall (humans and dogs) and everyone who helped in any way from registration to finish line. A fantastically well organised event which I would recommend to all.

Prizegiving

What have I learned?

• These old bones are on a journey, I never knew if they could go 71 miles, I hoped they would, and they never let me down.
• Hydration, regularly check the colour of your pee, more than I did (it's back to normal now, took 24 hours though).
• Always appreciate those you love and who are there for you, it's a special thing.

#beinspired #betheinspiration